In the French-made, English-language sleeper Taken, Liam Neeson was a former CIA operative who was (outlandishly) able to thwart a sex-trafficking ring. Audiences responded vociferously to his take-charge character. His latest film, Unknown...

May eventually surrender to convention and implausibility in equal measure, but until then, Collet-Serra grounds the conspiracy with a proper sense of mystery and mood.

Enjoy it and then forget it...

Along with wanting humor, Unknown’s lacking sense of romance leaves the audience with nothing to root for except the promise that, by the end, Neeson will deliver some knockout blows to the bad guys.